Net Smart: How To Thrive Online: Ch 1&3

Chapter1: Attention! Why and How to Control your Minds Most Powerful Instrument- I remember in 2016 when I was enrolled back at Kean after being gone for ten years, how nervous I was about how much technology had changed since the last time I was a student. How would this effect me? Would it? Could I adjust? In my very first evening class: Structures and Origins of the English Language I soon found out. I sat in the back like I normally do, and I got a harsh back row view of how much technology had changed college life and learning in the last decade. It was already a nerve wracking class to be taking my first semester back. I was 34 years old and the last time I learned about a predicate, complex sentence or prepositional phrase was over 20 years ago! (ugh I’m old). To make matters worse the younger student to my left, sitting two desks ahead of me was on her cell phone sneakily taking pictures (of what I now know as Snapchat) of our Professor. Whoa!? Huh!? I was dumfounded how could she do such a thing!? Taking pictures and without permission in a classroom!?? Blasphemy! Back in 2006, the last time I was a student, I never saw or heard of such a thing. I became almost transfixed and my full attention was on her and not my learning. I realized pretty quickly that this would be the least of my worries. Soon enough and one by one each student, like a robot I swear, was taking out and opening their laptops. Right before my eyes almost the entire class of about 27 had their technological devices on their desks, loaded up and ready to go. I sat there slumped at my desk slowly looking down at my simple notebook and pencil. Did they even own a pencil I thought? The furious clicking of their youthful millennial fingers left me totally distracted. All I could hear was the clicking sounds in my head, a loud echo carried throughout the CAS building. Then to my left the girl with the Snapchat was taking and sending even more pics, while I sat there with my pencil clutched in my now sweaty hand. I felt invisible, so very small and obsolete.

The first thought that crossed my mind was I have to tell the Professor! This is urgent, how was I supposed to learn and listen and absorb information!?! I was destined to fail I feared, and not because of me but because of stupid technology and all the distractions! The rest of that first class was rough. I called my best friend immediately after and explained my dilemma. She was sympathetic and encouraged me to tell the Professor, but warned me it may not work. This was the new wave of learning and technology was a part of it now. Ugh! A necessary evil I thought. Ultimately I didn’t tell my Professor (Italians don’t snitch) and I quickly learned that these new distractions were part of my new normal as a 34 year old college student. Each week got a bit easier and the sounds of their incessant clicking lessened, no more echo’s. I found myself strategizing where I should sit. Possibly in the front or middle of the classroom, left or right of center? Would this lessen all the distractions, would that work? But I was a creature of habit and decided to stay put in the back row. The cool thing about getting older is that wisdom comes with age and I knew I just had to face my fears. I wanted to share this story with all of you because as soon as I read Chapter 1 these memories came flooding back to me so strongly and vividly. This chapter was about attention and how technology has changed it and I could totally relate. In the opening pages when she talks about recording her students from the front of the class and giving them a birds eye view of what she sees each day and also having a recording of them from the back of the room was genius! I wish I could have done that or suggested it to my Professors. I think the idea of having these students see and experience what educators go through is a great way to help students realize the impact that technology has on their education and on their brains.

What I enjoyed most about this chapter was some of the research that was highlighted about the effects that technology has on our attention span. The fight or flight theory that Dr. Stone had researched was compelling. I find myself holding my breath at times when opening or writing emails. That resonated with me. What also struck me was the effects that technology has on parenting. Research shows that children can feel isolated and alone because of their parents being glued to their phones and paying less attention to them. I’ve been guilty of giving my nephew the iPad to distract him when I need to get stuff done. I’ve seen this played out with my best friend and her three small kids when she just needs a breather. I never thought twice about the effects that may have on the kids until now. I vow to do better going forward. Also the idea of mindfulness practice in trying to combat the way we think, feel and react to the fast paced world around us really struck me. Mediation has been around for centuries and although I find it difficult to mediate myself I do try to take the time to stop and smell the roses each and every day. When I’m on campus I try to focus on certain objects like a leaf that fell from a tree, or the squirrels that fearlessly dart in and out of our pathways. I also listen to sounds much more attentively. My favorite is walking past the small peaceful brooks throughout the campus, I now make it a habit to stop and close my eyes and listen to the flowing water. Just a few minutes does the trick, I find myself more grounded and centered. Although its true I never took the time to do these kind of things in my teens and 20’s, I did grow up in the 90’s where this social media, technology craze was way off in the horizon. I’m one of the lucky ones, I had the chance to pay close attention to my life experiences and to the world around me as a child and young adult. For that I’m forever grateful. I hope and pray that this new generation of children and young adults learn to find other ways to preoccupy their minds and their precious time, that don’t include being obsessively glued to their phones or computers. Instead of taking pictures and looking for the “perfect” angle, while vigorously posting the gorgeous sunset, I pray for the day that they put the phone down, open their eyes wide, take a deep breath, exhale and enjoy the beautiful moment instead. Hope you all enjoy this short video! Xo

https://youtu.be/lwyHk8OkGng

Chapter 3: Participation Power- “In the world of digitally networked publics, online participation if you know how to do it can translate to real power.” That line in this chapter struck a chord with me. Again I grew up in the 90’s so the technology and social media craze was yet to take over the world or our minds. In Chapter 1 I could certainly relate to the idea of the internet robbing students of their precious time and attention, in school and in their everyday lives. It was hard for me a 37 year-old soon to be 38, to adjust to the fast changing technology boom that seemed to hit hard and fast in the new millennium when I was a teenager. So I found myself stuck between these two extremes: Chapter 1 studying and discussing the research and negative impact technology has on students, and then Chapter 3 which talks about the benefits and the positive side to emerging technology. Participation power focused on highlighting the important role our active online participation plays in our world in producing real, lasting change. The proof is in the pudding as they say, this chapter opened my eyes to many different events that took place over the years that had a powerful impact on our world. From the Warner bros lawsuit, to Bev Harris who blogged about the security weaknesses found in voting machines, to uber famous and super rich Mark Zuckerberg and Google genius Wael Ghonim who all helped create powerful platforms of change. The common thread that connected them all was that they all used the power of technology and influence of social media in a way that created real political, economic and cultural change. It definitely opened my eyes and swayed my negative views of technology to some degree. Of course I know all about Facebook and Instagram and all the various social media engines of today, but I normally just blow it off and don’t pay any real attention to what it all means? I’m used to seeing the superficial, fake, drama filled world of chaos that always seems to surround these different social media engines, which is always amplified through the media and various D list celebrities. But when I take a step back and take a closer look, I can see the positive side of it all shining through all my dark skepticism.

Thanks in large part to the brilliant Dr. Zamora who taught me with such passion and enthusiasm about technology and the powerful influence it has on education today. In our Writing Theory and Practice course last semester I was forced to make a twitter account (yikes), create a blog (wtf?!), annotate on hypothes.is (huh?!), make a podcast (come again!?) and last but not least contribute to our very own class website, built and designed by each of us (your kidding right?!). I was horrified to say the least, I felt like I was in over my head, correction I was in over my head and I knew absolutely NADA. But to my surprise after my bumpy start and lots of help from my younger, tech savvy friends, I actually enjoyed each and every aspect of the process and learned so much! I tweet my little heart out almost daily, and I get to see and be connected to like minded people who are also tweeting about important issues and advocating for real change. My blog NivesWrites has been a cathartic experience for me and has made me a stronger writer and reader. I have to pay closer attention to everything I read, there is no skimming because I want to write a thoughtful and insightful response. Then when hypothes.is was introduced to our class I was hooked! We had the awesome experience of annotating the heartbreaking yet poignant: War In Translation with fellow college students from the other side of the world in Egypt! I mean it doesn’t get much better then that! And last but not least, making a podcast with my fellow classmate and contributing it to our class website which will be on full display during Kean Research Days! Phew! I mean I never could have imagined at the beginning of last semester that I would not only be expected to create all this but that I actually would enjoy each and every minute of it. I truly feel blessed, humbled and like a more enlightened human being for having the opportunity to see how important my active participation in this online world can be. One last thing that came to mind as I was reading this chapter was the heartbreaking story of the young teenage boy from the Bronx, Lesandro Guzman Feliz who was brutally slain in 2018 literally in the streets of the city, outside a local bodega by a group of murderous gang members. The entire incident was caught not only on security cameras from the surrounding streets and the bodega the incident occured, but also from passerby’s and tenants who lived above the building where Lesandro was brutally murdered. The scenes are horrific and graphic showing us frame by frame the terror, fear, and blood stained face of this young desperate teen who turns out was killed over a mistaken identity. The footage is hard to watch and it still brings me to tears as I type this, but through all the brutality and hate a miracle happened. Thanks to the outpouring of support and the outrage of concerned citizens not only from NYC but all over the country, the murderous gang was captured and as of today 15 were sentenced to life in prison without parole. Thanks in large part to the social media explosion that occurred as soon as this horrific crime took place. Footage captured on cell phones and posted on Instagram and Snapchat by the tenants and passerby’s were given to police and also blasted throughout the internet, where thousands of internet users saw and recognized some of the men involved within hours of the crime. Through this huge social media platform justice was served for Lesandro Feliz Guzman and his family. This active participation from all these concerned citizens wasn’t done to sensationalize this brutal crime but instead it was used to bring justice to Lesandro and his family. I was deeply touched by this story and again it proved to me just what the author had said, that if used with extreme care and a purpose in mind technology can create real lasting change and unite us all despite our differences. Xo

Announcements

The Net Mirror homestretch May 9, 2020 11:34 am

In the Net Mirror, we are now on the homestretch. As we look to this last week, and the completion of your work for this special class, it comes with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the semester has been a true roller coaster as we have faced many challenges both individually and together as a small community. And so it will feel like a relief to make it to the proverbial finish line. Regardless, in many meaningful ways, our group (and our weekly discussions) has meant so much to me. Our standing appointment to gather together on-screen has been a weekly high note during this lockdown. I will sincerely miss you all, and our tangible connection. Our work will continue of course (in either the summer or certainly in the Fall), but still, it makes me whistful thinking about how I will miss our #NetNarr hangouts and our Net Mirror conversations. Wrapping up Your final projects are all in “full swing” and our last hangout-workshop discussion covered much ground, from how to publish in the Arganee Journal, to making memes and refining your story concepts. Your blog post for this final week should be a quick progress report about your final project work, and your plan for presenting your concept on Thursday during our class hangout. Some dates to remember: On Thursday, May 14 we will have our final class wherein you will be invited to present your story concept work. Your formal deadline for publishing your story concept into the Arganee Journal is Friday, May 15th. You are welcome to publish it earlier (i.e. before Thursday hangout) if you would like, but the final deadline is on Friday. The final step in Net Mirror is the self-assessment narrative, which should be written in a google doc (we agreed that it will not be a blog), and sent to both Prof. Levine and me via email. The self-assessment is due by midnight on Sunday, May 17th. See you all for our grand finale on Thursday! xo, Dr. Zamora

Silly Media in Narrative Space May 7, 2020 2:18 am

I don’t have to explain often what a meme image or animated GIF is; we see them flying in social media, we reach for ones to express a reaction or an emotion. But for some time I’ve suggested there is a space to subvert the usual, throw-away and just-repeat-what-exists aspect this media for serious or perhaps narrative purpose. https://cog.dog/show/2019/03/20/silly-media/ See a conference talk I made out of this topic! For your final Net Mirror Story Concepts we are asking you to use this typical form of media differently, to weave it into your narrative. In the last session, we reviewed that extracting of small portions of film as an animated GIF– for your project, the task is to use this as a means of suggesting/showing how your imagined surveillance technology might work. The same approach for using giphy to isolate a scene from a Screening Surveillance film can be used to make a GIF from any video. In my ongoing demos, I am dealing with the Anonymous creatures in Google Docs that are taking over my writing. They animals are in control. This was my Story Treatment for last week’s Net Mirror Writers’ Room: I am so lost in my narrative I imagine that there really is a typing wombat! This is maybe not super technical, but it is my story. In my narrative, this would be woven into the flow of my writing. In the next segment, maybe I am trying to gain control back of my resume. https://giphy.com/gifs/wombat-netmirror-RNcctSIddbb0dkKCOr We are also asking you to make meme images a part of the narrative too. There are hundreds or more tools to do this, it’s mainly putting text atop an image, and you are welcome too to create them in any image editing software. When we teach Memes in NetNarr, we typically use the imgflip memegenerator. Like most meme making tools, they offer you a lot of popular based images to use, but you can also upload any image to build a meme image. For details on this process, see some of our previous activities; again, the steps are the same even though these were for different types of assignments: Most Fascinating Subject in the World MemeNosedive MemeA Meme to Counteract the Internet Darkness For your story concept, we are asking you to go beyond the simple, typical meme, and create a series of four or more that might represent a conversation or inner dialogue in your story. You can use any graphics software/site/app to make these, you will just need to create them as image files you can eventually add to he publishing site. For a really simple tool to add text to images, meme style and more, try PicFont https://picfont.com/ That was how I made this conversation: This is not the most scintillating dialogue, but it’s just a demo. Play with the form. The very last thing we’d like you to include is a true meme image, one that uses a commonly used image and message type (maybe it will be Oprah Everybody Gets a Car or Batman Slapping Robin), but bend it to be the cliff hanger for your plot or a closing commentary. Tp dp this, use imgflip memegenerator (or another) to find the meme’s “name” and research it on the Know Your Meme Database. This will help understand the meme’s origin and way it is used. This was the approach for the Memes That Meme Themself assignment. So I might try the Distracted Boyfriend because it’s so versatile. Hopefully by experimenting with this media forms, and creating your own content, you can expand the media limits of just writing to be writing with Silly Media. Image Credit Meme image generated from Grandma Finds the Internet.

Building your story concept May 2, 2020 8:03 am

In the “Net Mirror”, we close our time together with the composition of speculative fiction(s) in order to help synthesize our complex feelings (anxieties ?) regarding our relationship with technology. Each story will grapple with the reality of our data-driven society and the omnipresence of data surveillance. In the process of building unique story concepts, we hope to confront the possible consequences of new technologies that are inherently shaping our lives. In our last class meeting, I shared the plan for your Final Project for the Net Mirror: the development of both a “story treatment” and a “story concept” for our Net Mirror Story Collection. You have already developed a story treatment this past week, which is designed from a template that includes an image, a title, a plot synopsis, and credit. In the coming two weeks you will develop further details in a “story concept” that will include the following elements: Setting A description of setting and accompanying imagery: Where is your story taking place? What mood does it capture? What’s the ambiance- natural light, dark alley, fluorescent offices? What are the furnishings, the objects that make it seem real? Think of the apartment, the coffee shop, the riverside scenes from Frames and the Jai’s home, the doctor’s office, the street scenes from Blaxites. The setting is both the time and geographic location within a narrative, and it helps initiate the main backdrop and mood for a story. Elements of your setting may include culture, historical period, geography, and hour. When selecting multimodal artifacts or imagery to share a sense of your setting, look for specific visual/textual references that capture the aesthetic style of your story environment. Characterization List the main characters in your story. Name them, describe their physical traits and age, describe their personalities, give them a back story. What are their strengths and flaws? What makes them memorable? What motivates them? What is their relationship to the main character? Consider in Frames the neighbors in the elevator, the people on the bus, the strangers in the park. Or from Blaxites, what are the characters of the doctor, Jai’s friend, the staff in the special center? Plot Map What happens in your story? A plot map or storyboard allows writers to visualize the key features and key moments in a narrative. Give an overview/outline of the events that unfold in your story. Highlight key decision moments in your story concept. Look for moments in other video stories that match key moments in your story development, that you might be able to use as reference points. Sketch out and describe the important (turning-point) moments of your story. Media Your story concept will be written in a blog/journal style, but you will also be required to include at least the following media: Your story treatment (from the “Net Mirror” template)An overall metaphorical image to serve as a cover image for your conceptA screenshot / exported image of your NetMirror Writers’ Room plot summaryFive+ images of settings/scenesAt least two tweets (they can be your own) that may be used as plot points in your story (these can be embedded into your published concept).At least one original created animated gif representing the surveillance technology in your story.At least four original (self-created) meme images playing out a dialogue scene in your story, plus one to leave as a teaser for what happens next. Your to-do list: This week, make some progress on your story concept by working on the setting, the characterization, and your plot map. Also, tinker with gif making and build up your selection of media to be inserted into your story concept (you can keep all of this development material in a google doc which serves as a draft space). Next week in class we will workshop your story concepts further by discussing how they are developing and offering feedback. Prof. Levine will also conduct a meme making workshop (similar to this week’s gif workshop), and we will go over the details of how to publish your piece in the Arganee Journal. Your blog this week should be a brief reflection or progress report on how that development process is going. Some dates to keep in mind: On May 14 (our final class “hangout”) you will share your story concepts with each other in presentation-mode. The submission of your final Net Mirror story will be published in the Arganee Journal, and this submission is formally due on Friday, May 15. Reminder: Your final self-assessment blog is the last submission for Net Mirror class and should be posted no later than Sunday, May 17. Take care, and have a safe (and creative) week. Sincerely, Dr. Zamora

Looking closely into the Net Mirror April 24, 2020 4:34 pm

This week we had a great (virtual) class and I can feel the intellectual and creative energy that you all are contributing. I can’t believe we are nearing the end of the semester, and despite the fact that this has been an extraordinarily difficult time, I am starting to realize how much I will miss our weekly connections once the semester comes to a close. But we still have about 3 weeks in which to savor our learning together, and of course, the learning doesn’t end just because the Spring semester is winding down. Kean University Research Days 2020 As you all know, we were originally slated to design and host an interactive outreach installation at the Kean University Research Days forum on campus. This campus-wide event was obviously canceled due to our quarantine, but at least we were able to summarize our advocacy work with a brief Net Mirror data literacy advocacy video shared here: https://youtu.be/eE5XPqJQpqU Your Final Project These final three weeks of class will be devoted to developing a “story treatment” and a “story concept” for the final Net Mirror story collection. We have discussed that the reason why “Screening Surveillance” and “Black Mirror” are so compelling. They often build upon our existing anxieties about technology and push them just a step farther. In Net Mirror, we take a final turn now to speculative fiction(s) to help synthesize our concerns/wisdom/fears regarding our relationship with technology. We will think through the possible consequences of new technology by creating a collection of stories that push are imagination one step further. This week we shared with you the first step in this work, by prompting you to create a story treatment. We want you all to brainstorm a near future data surveillance technology based on a present-day experience of your own choice. It should be close enough that it seems like a plausible future. What are the potential social implications and/or ethical issues and/or regulatory challenges with this technology? What are the potential social implications and/or ethical issues and/or regulatory challenges with this technology? Your to-do list: When you browse and surf in current streaming services like Netflix, you can check out content by reading a brief “cover page” synopsis of the viewing selection. We invite you now to create a story treatment for our forthcoming Net Mirror Story Collection. In creating your story treatment this week, we have a template for you to work with. Use a blank slide in this presentation (or duplicate an existing one) to create the information for your own Net Mirror episode. Include an image, a title, a plot synopsis, and credit. Your blog for this week should include your story treatment (screenshot, embed, or link) and also share a reflection on your initial thoughts regarding the direction(s) your story might go. Next week we will explore our story concepts together in an open writer’s workshop, and also explore a bit of media making by creating some gif files together. As always, stay safe, and take care, Dr. Zamora

One reply on “Net Smart: How To Thrive Online: Ch 1&3”

I wasn’t aware of Lesandro Guzman Feliz’s brutal slaying. When I hear of people capturing footage of a violent event, my first reaction is always why didn’t they call 911? And maybe someone did in this case? However, this idea of acting as digital citizens to capture an event like this does invoke a sense of power. After all, the police were able to arrest the gang members. Thanks for helping me see things in a new perspective!

One reply on “Net Smart: How To Thrive Online: Ch 1&3”

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